Indian origin Sundar Pichai is the new Google CEO

Sundar Pichai has been appointed chief executive of Google, after the company’s founders announced plans to restructure its operations under the Alphabet parent company.

Google has announced a major restructuring, that will see the internet giant separate its core business from its ambitious research divisions, and launch a new parent company called Alphabet.

As part of the restructure, Larry Page will become chief executive of Alphabet, Sergey Brin will become president, Eric Schmidt will become executive chairman, and Sundar Pichai, who previously oversaw many of the search company’s core products, will become chief executive of Google – which will incorporate search, web advertising, Gmail, YouTube, Chrome and Android.

Mr Page said that Mr Pichai was the natural choice to lead Google, adding that he has “really stepped up” since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for Google’s internet businesses.

“Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google,” he said in a blog post.

“I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that.”

Others suggested that Mr Pichai had been approached by Twitter, which is looking for a chief executive, and that he was promoted in order to keep him on board.

Mr Page said that Mr Pichai will continue to drive innovation and stretch boundaries at Google, and ensure that the company “can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organise the world’s information”.